The standings continue to change in Major League Soccer as teams go through hot and cold streaks in the long season. Seattle is now back in the number one spot, which they held for the first few weeks of the season, and other teams like the LA Galaxy are finally starting to get some wins. The East remains very crowded while New York is now 14 points out of a playoff spot.

Laurie over at Sounders Offside is justifiably very upset over the allegations of rape currently surrounding MLS newcomer Fredy Montero. So I've decided to give her a small feel good present in the form of...Freddie Ljungberg modelling Calvin Klein tighty whities. All joking aside, the story that broke early Friday is a huge blow to Seattle, and MLS as a whole.

Refs can't get away from those red cards can they? I don't know if it's their fault though, with the two players on the receiving end Jamison Olave and Fredy Montero deserving to be sent off. It's discouraging to see on such a consistent basis, though refs are standing up for themselves. Most calls have been warranted.

Toronto FC has completed the signing of Canadian national team striker Ali Gerba, the club announced on Monday. Gerba joins TFC after parting ways with English club MK Dons.

Toronto acquired Gerba's rights in a deal with San Jose earlier this month that also brought veteran defender Nick Garcia to Toronto.

Another glut of MLS action is heading our way this weekend, with a Saturday that will satisfy even the most die-hard fans amonst us. You can park yourself in front of the TV (or computer) screen and catch action starting at 4:00 PM and ending after midnight with the late games on the West coast. Two teams Columbus and Los Angeles are still gunning for their first win of the season, while Toronto and Chivas will be out to remain on top of their respective conferences.

The King's Club. The White Ballet. The Galacticos (but not the Landycakes version). Rumour has it that one of the world's most storied clubs is coming to town on August 7th. They are so special that MLSE has agreed to lay down real grass over the turf for the game in order to protect the precious knees of their numerous stars.

DC United go top of the Eastern Conference on goal differential, with Toronto even on points. Both clubs have as many wins as ties. Meanwhile, Chivas USA increases the gulf out West. Columbus 1 - Toronto 1 Emmanuel Ekpo put the Crew up 1-0 in the 54th minute, with Toronto answering back ten minutes later when Chad Barrett scored.

I believe our team is heading down to Florida this weekend to continue their pre-season training. Hopefully we'll get some news on new trialists and potential signings soon.
Today's Links
Amado Guevara has rejoined us from international duty with Honduras. Yesterday was his first day back in pre-season training.

Well I get what I deserve after pointing out the number of draws in MLS this season, five of the seven games from this past weekend end with honors even. It's hardly a surprise to see it, but still makes you wonder what exactly is going on this season. No home team even won a game, with Chicago and Kansas City both getting wins on the road.

Here is a press release.
The club announced today that we've acquired defender Nick Garcia from San Jose, along with the rights to Canadian striker Ali Gerba.
In Nick Garcia, we've acquired a veteran defender who at 30, is still in his prime as a centre half. He captained the Earthquakes 2.

The New York Red Bulls come to town tonight. They have lost their last four, and winless on the road this season, and have yet to score a goal away from Giants Stadium. Surely we can't mess this up, right?
I'd expect that newly-acquired defender Nick Garcia will slide right into the starting eleven, especially with Marvell Wynne away on international duty and Jim Brennan being a game-time decision because of an ankle injury.

The New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC are both in the midst of terrible skids and each will be hoping for the victory that can turn things around when they meet tonight at BMO Field (8pm, MSG+).

If the Red Bulls season is on life-support, then a loss tonight would essentially pull the plug on any faint playoff hopes the team might have.

TORONTO FC VS. D.C. UNITED
BMO Field - Saturday 4:00 PM EST
TV: Rogers Sportsnet -- Radio: The Fan 590
How do two teams react after being punched repeatedly in the face by Spanish billionaires? It will be interesting to see which club gained the most out of being Real Madrid's b*tches last week.

While we are no big fan of the playoff structure in MLS, it seems to be a necessary evil in a North American league for now. The 2009 MLS Playoffs have actually been quite good though with 3 out of the 4 teams who remain being deserving. Sometimes however, there are off the field occurrences which can be just as interesting.

After yesterday's 2-1 win over DC United and Real Salt Lake's 2-1 win over the Charleston Battery, this Saturday's tournament finale for us has been given a little bit of meaning. I think that out of all three matches this week, the result of this one will mean the most to many of us.
I haven't gotten around to writing a match report on yesterday's win - hopefully I'll get to that today sometime.

Oh wow - this is so awesome!
I do not like Chad Barrett. It goes something like this on my list of most hated MLS players:

1. Chad Barrett
2. Landon Donovan*
   
3. Taylor Twellman*
4. C. Blanco

...etc
Anyway, I saw this on ESPN Soccernet's weekly MLS Power Rankings and about lost my sh*t.

Tonight Toronto FC demolished the Montreal Impact in every way other than the most important one, scoring. Chad Barrett scored the lone goal, a great shot that the fans were hoping would be the start of an onslaught ...
Instead it was a parade of breakaways that were thwarted, shots that just missed and posts that were hit.

This is embarrassing. When your centre forward can't convert a free header from 6 yards in a potential championship winning game, something is wrong.

So, we haven't signed him yet.
According to Mo Johnston though, Gerba could be signed by this Monday or Tuesday. He'll likely be at tomorrow's match against the hapless Red Bulls, and contract talks will go on from there. One area of concern could be the money aspect. Though Mo isn't too worried about the money issue, the main reason that he never signed with the Earthquakes was because of the salary he was looking for.

Sorry for the lengthy absence - I am back. And seething with anger. This isn't exactly going to be a warm-fuzzy post about how I love TFC. It's a little negative, so brace yourself for it.
If football matches were only 75 minutes long, we'd be 3 points off of first in the league, and we'd have a playoff spot locked up.

------------------ "Sing when you're winning" - RSL = 40pts
After having to swallow a 5-0 debacle in New York, one thing was clear - any team other than Toronto FC had to make the playoffs tonight. There was that brief moment where it was still possible that the Reds, that unbalanced, built-on-the cheap by Mo Johnston squad could still make the playoffs despite the club's horrifying display and completely mediocre season.

Time for the second half of this American concept they call the home-and-home. Last week's tie with FC Dallas was a disappointment for TFC, though we are not under as much pressure as our opponents going into Sunday's match in the oven (or Pizza Hut Park), as they are still winless on the season.

So that was Toronto's soccer team playing in Toronto's soccer stadium last night.
I have just returned from a great holiday and I am finding it hard to fall back into old routines. Perhaps this is a part of a great holiday, you return home and find yourself in a strange state. You start to see many of the old familiar things in a new light.

This realization has taken a few weeks longer this season, but it's still just as painful. After watching TFC shit the bed this past weekend in Colorado, my faith in our ability to bounce back and hit a good run of form is effectively dead. I'm not too urked by a 1-0 loss away to the Rapids - they've been a good team this year.

One of the more quiet acquisitions that MLSE made this summer was a controlling stake in the football specialty channel GolTV. The purchase may be the first step towards making a TFC TV channel but of course that means MLSE will need to create a full line-up of programming. As with any network, not all of the shows can be big hits - such as.

Toronto will certainly protect their stars but who won't be protected? (Getty Images)

The 15h and final club in our expansion draft speculation lists is Toronto FC. Yesterday they announced Preki as their new head coach and his first big task will be helping General Manager Mo Johnston with figuring out who to protect and who to leave exposed in the expansion draft.

Tomorrow MLS will hold the 2009 Expansion Draft so the new Philadelphia Union can select their team for next season. That means they get to select 10 players from the MLS's 15 teams. Each team gets to protect 11 players and the rest are fair game for the Union to select. Each team can only lose one player in the draft.

--------------"I know, I can't believe I'm protected either Amado!"
You would like to think that tomorrow's MLS Expansion Draft is on the up and up but you can't help but wonder what negotiations and side deals were cut with new boys Philadelphia Union beforehand. TFC and the other existing clubs had to reveal their protected players yesterday and the names on the BMO Field list threw up some curiosities indeed.

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If there is any team in MLS we can bounce back against right now, surely it is FC Dallas. They are 0-3-0, with two home losses coming before last weekend's loss away to New England. Tomorrow's match opens up a home and home series we have with them. Next Sunday, we are at Pizza Hut Park.
This match is one that I looked for right away when the schedule came out.

I believe I have come up with the perfect headline to match the picture at the top of this blog (which I stole from Krazy Kanadian over at torfc.com). 10 points to me. In case you don't recognize the three players, they are TFC's Marco Velez, along with FC Dallas' Jeff Cunningham (unfortunately he used to play for TFC), and Adrian Serioux, who in this picture did not know that he would be anchoring Toronto's defense in the teams' next meeting.

My Twitter handle: dunord
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MLS Week 5 Matches & Scores:
-Fri Apr 17
DC 1-1 New England - DC goal by Ben Olsen. NE goal by Shalrie Joseph.

Wednesday night at BMO Field it was the meeting of the hot team and the cold night, but the result was not what many had been expecting. Toronto won 1-0 and every element of their team was functioning at a high level. I take that back, clearly finishing their scoring chances and beating the offside trap are two elements that need work.

A look at the weekend's action in Major League Soccer where MLS Cup winners Columbus Crew failed to win again and the L.A. Galaxy finally ended an 8 games winless streak.

DC United 2, FC Dallas 1

Jaime Moreno scored his first two goals of the season 10 minutes apart in the second half to lift D.

STARTERS
Hooked on Twitter: dunord
MLS
MLS Week 7 Matches
-Sat May 2
Toronto 1-1 Columbus - TFC goal by Chad Barrett. CC goal by Emmanuel Ekpo.
Venue: BMO Field, Toronto ON
Attendance: 19,998
DC 2-1 Dallas - DC goals both by Jaime Moreno.

Every once in a very great while, Chad Barrett does something to remind us all that he really is getting paid* to play soccer in a professional capacity. Case in point: the solitary goal in TFC's home victory over Montreal in the Nutrilite...

Life's busy, ain't it? Rather than go into a full match report about Wednesday's 1-0 win over the Impact, I figured I'd just give some quick thoughts since I'm already two days late. Here we go...
- We were much, much better than the Impact. We outshot them 16-3 and hit the post at least three times.

See what happens when Chad Barrett isn't our centre forward? We score three goals! ...Okay, maybe that's a little harsh. For what it's worth, I thought Barrett did pretty well for us yesterday. As a team, I'm not sure that we played any better yesterday than we played in our other wins. We just scored more, and it was awesome.

Football is a team sport. As David Beckham and Landon Donovan so clearly illustrated with the Galaxy last season, a couple of superstars don't win championships in this sport.
Prior to last night, we were in the drivers seat of the Voyageurs Cup. All we needed was a point to win it. Just one.

The twelfth week of the Major League Soccer season has just wrapped up. Let's take a look at the all-important attendance #'s.
NY @ DCU – 11,226 (Thu)
HOU @ CHI – 13,246 (Fri)
LA @ TFC – 20,753 ***sellout***
CLB @ KC – 10,385 ***sellout***
COL @ RSL – 19,546 ***sellout***
SEA @ CHV – 13,117
SJ @ FCD – 5,724 (Sun)
NY @ NE – 11,183 (Sun)
Toronto continues to have good fan support despite the team going through an identity crisis.